Many components of gas turbine engines require lubrication. Such components may be shaft bearings, gear boxes, and the like. Gas turbine engines typically comprise an oil tank and an oil pump in fluid communication with an oil circuit configured to circulate oil to these components requiring lubrication.
However, such oil circuits are not always leak proof and air that enters the circuit can mix with the oil. The resulting air-oil mixture is thus routed to the components and can affect the lubricating efficiency. A de-aerator is thus typically used to extract any air from the air-oil mixture, before the oil is routed back through the oil circuit. However, existing de-aerators are not always able to extract all the air from the air-oil mixture.